Dr Paul Allen

“The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” ( James 3:6 ) The word for “hell” in this verse is gehenna, and this is the only one of its 11 occurrences in the New Testament that is not a direct quote from the lips of Christ . Since the tongue is not a literal fire and since its misuse can in effect make it a “world of iniquity,” this passage suggests that hell itself is the ultimate world of iniquity that has made the uncontrolled tongue an extension of itself. The Bible speaks of this future hell as a place of “ everlasting fire , prepared for the devil and his angels” ( Matthew 25:41 ). However, if these were fires such as we have here on Earth , it is difficult to see how, as Jesus said, God will “destroy both soul and body in hell” ( Matthew10:28 ). Fire would destroy the body, but what about the soul? The fire of hell may include some ...

The English word “hell,” as employed in the KJV, translates four words in the original biblical languages: Heb. še˒ôl, and Gk. hádēs, géenna (Gehenna) and tartaróō (a reference to Tartarus). The RSV transliterates as Sheol and Hades; these names generally signify the abode of all the dead, whether blessed or damned. On the other hand, the RSV associates both géenna and tartaróō with hell, signifying, as used in the New Testament, a special place of punishment for the wicked. The progressive biblical use of these terms provides a history of the development of the doctrine of hell as the eternal destiny of the damned. Although seeds of the later doctrine of hell exist in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophets, the doctrine did not approach its developed form until intertestamental and New Testament times. I. Sheol The KJV translates Heb. še˒ôl thirty-one times as “hell,” thirty-one times as “the grave,” and three times as “the pit.” Both the literal meaning of the wo...